text: Following the discovery of cellular organelles in the nineteenth century, little was known about their function and synthesis until the development of electron microscopy and subcellular fractionation in the twentieth century. This allowed experiments on the function, structure, and biogenesis of these organelles to commence.
  Mechanisms of protein sorting and retrieval have been found to give organelles their characteristic composition. It is known that cellular organelles can come from preexisting organelles; however, it is a subject of controversy whether organelles can be created without a preexisting one.